David Ackerly is the Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources and has a joint appointment in the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California Berkeley. Current research in his lab examines drought tolerance of native tree species, potential impacts of climate change on plant communities, and post-fire forest dynamics following the 2017 northern California wildfires. His research is used to inform strategies of biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change, with a focus on California parks and open space. Ackerly received his B.A. in Biological Sciences from Yale University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

Tania Carlone is a Senior Mediator at the Consensus Building Institute. She brings more than 20 years’ experience in community organizing, organizational leadership and education in the United States and internationally. For the past 15 years, Tania has provided mediation, facilitation and community engagement services with a focus on collaboration and consensus building in multi-party environmental policy arenas. Tania also designs collaborative processes to improve organizational effectiveness. She facilitates strategic planning efforts with nonprofits and public agencies and provides strategic guidance and training to organizational leaders. Prior to her tenure at CBI, Tania was a Senior Mediator and Deputy Water Program Manager at the Center for Collaborative Policy at California State University Sacramento. She is based in Berkeley, CA.

Patrick Gonzalez, Ph.D., <http://www.patrickgonzalez.net> is a climate change scientist and forest ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He advances science-based action on human-caused climate change to protect nature and people, through research on climate change, ecosystems, and carbon solutions and assistance to resource managers and policymakers. He has conducted field research in Africa, Latin America, and the U.S., published with colleagues in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and other journals, and assisted local people and field managers in 26 countries and 269 U.S. national parks. Dr. Gonzalez previously served as Principal Climate Change Scientist of the U.S. National Park Service and Assistant Director for Climate and Biodiversity of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has stood publicly for scientific integrity and broadened public understanding of climate change in the New York Times, public radio, and other media. Dr. Gonzalez has served as a lead author for four reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the science panel awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace.

James (Jim) Sallee is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, a Professor at the Haas School of Business, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Research Associate of the Energy Institute at Haas. He is a public economist who studies topics related to energy, the environment and taxation. His research focuses on policies aimed at reducing energy use and emissions in the transportation and power sectors. At Berkeley, he is leading the development of new professional education focused on climate change.

Glenn Yago is the Senior Director of the Milken Innovation Center at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research and a Senior Fellow/ Founder of Financial Innovations Labs® (Milken Institute-U.S). He is a leading authority on financial innovations, capital markets, emerging markets and environmental finance. Yago’s work focuses on the innovative use of financial instruments to solve long-standing economic development and social and environmental challenges. His research and projects have contributed to policy innovations fostering the democratization of capital to traditionally underserved markets and entrepreneurs.

David Riemer is the Amazon Best-Selling author of Get Your Startup Story Straight: The Definitive Storytelling Framework for Innovators and Entrepreneurs. He has spent the last 15 years helping hundreds of innovators use storytelling to put their products and businesses on the map. David’s on the professional faculty at Berkeley-Haas School of Business and coaches founders at several Bay Area accelerators. He’s a contributor to Forbes.com, where he writes about compelling startup stories. Earlier in his career, he was president of the ad agency J. Walter Thompson in San Francisco, held senior marketing roles at two tech startups, and was VP of Marketing at Yahoo! in its heyday. David also produces theater and was recently chair of the board of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia University.